Here we go!!

Yay - I now have my drivers license! Whoop-whoop!
The medical insurance was ready on Sunday, the Residence Visa was placed in my passport on Monday - so on Tuesday I could go to the local police station and get my local drivers license.

It was a process that took only about 2 minutes. No queuing, I sat down in front of the lady, presented her with my passport and Swedish drivers license; the official translation of the license we had had made; copies of my passport, my visa and my Emirates ID application. Then she took my photo and while she walked away into the next room, I get this text message on my phone:

The next thing I know, I'm presented with my actual drivers license! It was made there and then! Great stuff!
So what do you do once you get your license - you go on a road trip of course!

I actually only drove down to the petrol station. We were going to Dubai, and traffic there can be pretty intimidating when you are not used to it. I still have to get used to the bigger car, driving on the "wrong" side (well, even though I got my license in Sweden, where we do drive on the right, I never drove much there so driving on the left is more natural to me!) and to the environment and the way they drive here.

The reason for going was to go and get Nathan's bikes. We had to go via a bike shop, to get a bike rack for the car, to be able to bring them home. One bike has been stored at the Dehlis since Nathan was there for the race in December, and the other one arrived from Brunei with Jeremy last week.

Anyway, spending a few days at the Dehlis is never wrong!
Our house is a little bit roomier than theirs, but I still get house envy every time we are there. I have to remember they've been there for over 3 years, so their compound is pretty established. (Even though the construction of our compound has been completed, it is still full of building scraps, sand and other debris and rubbish. It looks so bad...)

I so love their back garden! It's a bit bigger than ours, and it has lots of lovely greenery and flowers. You can hear the birds sing when you sit out there and it feels like you are in Scandinavia or NZ on a perfectly tempered day. Here's a quick snap of their garden:

Here is our garden... Ha ha ha! I think this will have to be our next project!